“My family was Marines,” said their grandmother, Peggy Durr. “My dad, my brothers, my uncles, a lot of Marines, and I married an Army guy.”

In the Durr household in Everett’s Riverside neighborhood, the traditions of the armed forces are a way of life, passed down with humility and honor.

With a house full of girls, though, there’s still plenty of room for being boisterous.

The girls were on a military-style drill team for nearly a decade before high school. In drill, they learned to twirl wooden rifles.

When Nikki, the oldest, got to high school she had to decide between drill and ROTC.

Grandma suggested ROTC.

Nikki found that she liked Color Guard, marching in a group.

“The other two just kind of followed right along,” Peggy Durr said.

Together, the three girls have gone on ROTC field trips and traveled to competitions, plus practices — several times a week, before and after school. ROTC is where they’ve made most of their friends.

The girls perform at military remembrance events, community fundraisers, festivals, marathons, senior centers and the like.

“Half of our life is pretty much ROTC,” said Nikki, 17.

Some events, such as Memorial Day, are somber. At other ceremonies, though, sometimes it’s hard to keep a straight face, the girls said. Little kids will act goofy around the ROTC students in uniform, trying to get them to laugh.

Sammy Durr, 16, French-braids the other girls’ hair before events. She likes doing hair and nails, and she is thinking about becoming a cosmetologist.

The other girls say they’ve waited patiently for Sammy to get better at the braids: tight enough to stay in place but not so tight it pulls the hair out.

At 15, Christina Durr is the reader, the 4.0 student.

She once called her grandmother from school: She needed a ride, because she’d gleaned a box of books that were being given away. She has 200 titles on her Kindle this summer.

Christina is considering going to culinary school after graduation. She’d like to learn how to make fancy cakes.

Her grandmother calls Christina “the brains.”

“Does that make Sammy and I the brawns?” Nikki asks, laughing.

Nikki is the leader. Her first two years in ROTC, she logged more than 280 community service hours. Sammy is at 134 hours.

Nikki wants to teach elementary school math and sign language. She likes working with underdogs. The plan is to continue her studies at Everett Community College.

“It keeps me close to home so I can live with Grandma still,” she said. “Grandma already said I could.”

The Durrs adopted Sammy and Christina about 18 months ago. Nikki spends plenty of time with her cousins at the Durr house.

The girls all are fourth-generation Everett High School students.

They have a deal: Grandma keeps the house clean, and the girls finish school. Graduation comes before everything, even ROTC, Peggy Durr said, though the girls are expected to keep their rooms tidy.